Sly 5.
GexenaL sympathy will be extended to Sir Henry and Lady May on the terrible experience through which they have had to pass at the very outset of their now term in Hongkong; and therewith heartfelt congratulations that that experience was not actually worse. For many years Sir Henry May has been well known in the Far East and his popularity and the respect in which he has always boon held need no emphasis. When Bir Frederick Lugard was traes! to Nigeris, it wis generally felt that the choice which made Sir Henry May his successor was wisely guided. That feeling also, we are convinced, is shared by all the better class Chinese in the Colony; and for this, among many reasons, it will be well not to seek for other motives in the outrage than those which are usually associated with such.attempts. The phrase antiforeignism is easily bandied about. in China to-day. Every meeting of hotheads, called in opposition to foreign loans, is made to come under ti ion, with consequent injustice to China which calls for carefal discrimination. We may regret the want of unity, of statesmanship and of a fixed policy as seen in China to-day; we may have excellent reason to doubt the wisdom of the political ideals which have induced the Chinese nation to experiment with republican doctrines. But in fairness we must give due credit to China for the scrap pulous care which has been exercised ever since the outbreak of the revolution in respect of foreign lives and property. None will regret more than Chinese themselves the attempt that has been ma Sir Henry May; and in offering him the congratulations of the Far Eastern foreign community upon his and Lady May's providential escape, we may believe that the experience of yesterday is in no sense to be regarded as an omen to cloud the prosperity of his administration.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.